Out of Touch
by Ashlaloo
Summary: Sakura had trained all her life to fight. To become strong and overcome her rejection, her rank in the United Republic reflected that. A mission to bring back some U.R soldiers throws her life into a spiral as she comes across a strange man chained to a wall. Saving him was the only thing on her mind at that moment and it's changing her life. AU based on a book.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and the foundation on this fanfic is based on the book Beyond the Rain.

"Targets located. Awaiting orders Captain." Wraith announced handing Sakura the holo map.

A red dot pulsed against the pale blue structure. "Have the scouts reported any enemy units?" She asked looking at each possible entrance.

"No. The structure is very secure. 2 of the entrance points are sewers and even then we'll have to weld through. The other is unknown." Wraith told her.

Sakura sat in the ship hovering over Otogakure, the slave planet. The Sounians traveled to other planets capturing people and selling them as slaves. They were in control of the black market and the price the United Republic officers they captured would be high. Otogakure was a slum planet but it was that was for more reason than one, the biggest being it made it nearly impossible for others to retrieve what they had stolen.

"Wraith and Rila you're with me. We'll go and retrieve the targets. Stens you stay with the ship. Once we down their shields and enter the atmosphere they'll know something's up. We'll have No more than 43 minutes to get in and out. Wraith, what's the position of scout F-243?"

"F-243 is 300 yards from target position."

"Good. Have the others gather to him and secure a perimeter. We need to know the moment the enemy begins to get close." Sakura stood in front of the ships windshield. "Show time." And they began their decent.

* * *

"Let's go." Sakura yelled as jumped onto the planet. She scowled as her feet sank in mud. She hadn't accounted for mud, it would slow them down, especially with the targets. Lifting her feet from the suction she ran on. Lifting her wrist she activated her own holo map, taking the lead.

This was her first time on the Slaver planet. She had usually been in charge of chasing Otogakure's ships after a raid and saving it's occupants. Or she'd crash black market trading events, those were always the most fun. Bashing the skulls of not only the Sounians but also the scum willing to purchase a slave.

Otogakure was an ugly planet. It was once a great empire but their love for control drove it to ruins, ruins they had just left scattering the ground. They had given up on the planet and it had given up on them, becoming a lifeless rock. No plants grew and that made her uncomfortable. As she passed a large, jagged rock a shamble of a building stood broken.

"This is it." Rila panted.

"Over here." Sakura jumped down a bank into a sewer pipe. Wraith followed and cut the metal bars blocking their way.

Sakura looked at the map projecting from her wrist. "Scout S-536 is inside the building. Wraith I told you to command all scouts to F-243."

"I did."

"It might be stuck. I'll leave the targets to you two while I retrieve it. S-536 possesses codes we can't leave behind." Sakura told her soldiers. They nodded and separated from her.

Sakura made her way out of the sewers and into the building. She shuddered at the dankness of the stone walls. It was less filthy in the sewers. Following her map she stopped in front of a locked metal door. S-536 was on the other side. "What have you gotten yourself into Surra?" She muttered taking a pin out of her hair and jamming it into the large lock. S-536 was her favorite scout. She had found the Serval cat on the Planet Earth and trained her to be her scout.

Turning the pin the door unlocked and she shoved it open. What she saw disgusted her. A man sat in the corner of the windowless room. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. He looked naked but she could see the outline of shorts, it was the only clothing on him. He was chained, lengths of chains bound his wrists and ankles to the stone walls. Those weren't the only things connecting him to the wall, two tubes hung from the ceiling and imbedded themselves in his back. She had never seen this level of containment for a slave, for anything. She had to get him out, she _needed_ to get him out. Taking a step toward him he tensed and faced her, a large metal plate covered his eyes. That was it, she rushed to him, she had to free him. Her sudden movements seemed to startle the man, he reared up, grabbed her and slammed her against the wall, his hands instantly on her throat. But as soon as they touched her they were gone, he leaned forward, his face inches from her and he took a deep breath in, jerked back his head, and backed away from her.

Confused by what had just occurred she approached him carefully this time. "I'm not your enemy, I'm here to help you." She spoke in the United Republic's language. Most of those taken as slaves were from planets in the U.R so she hopped he would be able to understand her.

He didn't say a thing.

"Do you understand?" She asked

No answer.

"I need you to answer me if you understand." She said again.

Silence.

Great, he wasn't from the U.R. That made things difficult. They wouldn't be able to communicate. She couldn't even gesture to him, he was blinded at the moment. Grabbing the man's wrists she tapped her nail twice, activating the small laser she has under her nail, and began cutting through his shackles. His muscles were tense but relaxed a little with each cuff she undone. It was difficult, trying to cut through the cuffs in the dark, one small slip and she'd slice his skin and at his current state, she doubted he'd be happy about it. Finally the last one fell to the ground. Once he was free he reached behind his back and ripped the tubes out, a strangely sweet smelling liquid poured from one and Sakura's mind began to fog. She stumbled a bit, feeling a warmth spread to her face and down her body.

_Get out. I need to get out of the room, away from whatever that smell is. _ She thought frantically. Seeing the door she tried to go to it but her body wouldn't move. The smell…it was sweet, it was becoming more potent as it filled the room.

Stong hands grabbed her upper arms and steered her to the door, once they were both through the man closed it. Sakura took a deep breath, feeling the fog beginning to clear but not completely. She swallowed hard as the heat began to recede from her body.

_What the hell was that_?

Sakura almost jumped when something rubbed against her legs. Looking down Surra was purring loudly. Turning to the man behind her she saw the metal plate still covering his eyes. Reaching up she gripped the cold metal and gently pulled. The man tensed but the plate wouldn't budge.

"Well, I'll have to get you to the ship with you blind." She sighed grabbing his hand and leading him back the way she came. Turning on the holo map she could see that Wraith and Rila were halfway back to the ship, two red dots following him. She programmed her position and added a red dot with her as well so they would know she found another slave. "We need to hurry." She said forgetting he couldn't understand her.

It was slow going, he stumbled without his sight and he was weak from imprisonment. "Surra, I need you to find the safest route." Sakura told her cat. "One without anything that'll slow us." The cat chirped at her and raced ahead. Sakura following the path Surra took.

"Damn Captain. My grandma would have been faster." Wraith ran to meet her, pulling the man's arm over his shoulder and running him to the ship.

The second her foot stepped on the metal of the ship she sagged with relief. "Get us the hell out of here Stens." She ordered, slamming her fist on the yellow button, the door behind her closing. Ignoring the grateful thanks of the U.R. soldiers she just rescued she walked right to the man she freed. She could see him in the light now and she couldn't help but stare. His skin, dirty, bruised, and scarred, was a pale cream color and his hair was jet black. What's more was even through the layers of dirt caking his body she could see every muscle, every well defined, beautiful, muscle. "He's not from a planet in the U.R." She told Rila. Rila was training to become a linguist. "Can you figure out what he speaks?"

"We can set him up with a translater but if he doesn't speak U.R. or any language of the U.R planets it'll be useless." Rila told her.

"Figure it out." She ordered.

"Uh. Captain?" Stens voice was stress as he called from the pilot seat.

"What?" Sakura snapped.

"We have 4 Sounian ships trailing us. They haven't locked yet but they're trying."

"Well they sure wouldn't send 4 ships for 2 U.R. soldiers." Wraith said looking at the dark haired man. "So just who the hell is this guy and why do they want him back so badly?"

Something clicked in her mind. "Chakra." She gasped.

"What did you say?" Wraith's head snapped to her at the mention of the drug.

Sakura thought about the tubes imbedded in the man's back, the feeling that spread through her body just at the _smell_ of the liquid. There was only one species that produced enough of it in their bodied to be extracted. She turned and looked at the man, she needed to be sure. "Uchiha." She said in low voice.

His head snapped up as she said it.

"Well that explains why there's 4 fucking ships tailing us." Wraith mumbled.

"They've locked onto us." Stens yelled threw the ship into a hard bank to the right.

Sakura lost her balance and fell onto the Uchiha. His reflexes where flawless as he caught her. Her skin began to tingle where he touched her. She instantly thought of the feeling the sweet liquid gave her and she pulled away from his touch. She couldn't feel that way, she wouldn't let herself.

They lurched forward and trembled. Sakura was expecting sudden movements so she didn't lose her balance again.

"Left engine shot and down." Stens yelled.

" Then land this thing. NOW!" Sakura ordered back. Landing was their only chance, if they stayed in space they would either be caught and boarded or the ship would explode.

"Strap In then. We're not landing gently with one engine." Stens shook his head, then began pushing buttons and turning knobs.

Sakura quickly made sure the Uchiha's straps were secure before strapping in next to him.

She didn't know the language of the Uchiha's but she knew some of the Konohans and the two were distantly related. Or according to legend they were.

"We're crashing." She said in Kohonan, she knew she was butchering the words but she hoped he could vaguely understand. He was blind and didn't understand what they were saying, he had to way to know that they were planning to crash the ship.

He turned to her and gripped the straps, giving her a small nod.

She understood. He felt trapped, caged. She had saved him from imprisonment only to restrain him again.

"Here we go!" Stens yelled and the ship began to rock. It wasn't so bad at first but it became violent.

Sakura closed her eyes and waited for impact.

* * *

"Captain…..Captain wake up."

Sakura's eyes fluttered open to Rila staring at her. Sakura shook her head clear and her hands fumbled to undo the seat straps. Turning to her right the Uchiha was still strapped in, his head hung in unconsciousness.

"Hey." She said kneeling, undoing the straps holding him in. She grabbed both sides of his face and shook gently shook him.

His head raised. He said something and Sakura only understood ship and ok.

"I'm setting the ship to self destruct." Rila said walking to the front.

"We go." She said to him in Konohan.

He nodded and got up, Sakura lead him out.

The two U.R soldiers they rescued were standing with Wraith a good distance from the ship. Surra was sitting, her tail twitching behind her next to Wraith.

"Where's Stens?" She asked.

"….He didn't make it." Wraith frowned while handing her a backpack

Sakura's stomache dropped and she shouldered the pack.

"What's the plan?" Rila asked running up. "5 minutes until the ship blows.

Sakura pulled up her holo map. "We're not safe yet. This isn't a U.R. Planet." She sighed. "Rila, Wraith, take the targets North. The farther north you get you should be able to find a passage ship. You'll be able to get to a Republic planet. I'll take the Uchiha south."

"You're not coming with us?" Rila asked surprised.

"No, raiders will be searching for us after the ship blows. They won't know how many where in it so splitting would be better. Plus you'll be able to find transport easier with 4 instead of 6. Trust me." Sakura explained.

"The Sounians will come for him here." Wraith said. "You go south and get off this rock as fast as you can."

"I know." She held out her hand to him in his planet's farewell.

"Be safe." He said gripping her forearm as she did his.

"You too, all of you." She nodded to Rila and the freed U.R. soldiers.

"2 minutes." Rila said tapping her watch.

Giving one last nod Sakura grabbed the Uchiha's arm and ran south. Surra following behind.

She wasn't sure which planet this was but she felt a million times better. There was life here. There weren't lush forests like she would have liked but there were meadows and trees. She ran, pulling the man behind her until it was dark.

There was no moon on this planet and the stars did nothing to illuminate her way. They needed to build a fire in order to settle for the night. It wasn't smart for her to run until it was dark but she needed to put as much distance between them and the ship. Hopefully the raiders of this planet would assume the ships occupants weren't stupid enough to run into the night.

"Wait." She said to the man, the unfamiliar dialect sticking in her mouth. "I'll return."

He stiffened at her words and his hand tightened around hers.

She could feel the unease rolling off of him but he let go.

"Surra find us some dinner. Lots of it." She ordered her scout before she went to find something to burn.

Sakura picked up sticks and logs from the ground, the weight of her situation baring down on her. She was stuck on an unfamiliar planet with and Uchihan. She didn't know much about the people, what she did know didn't make her feel any better about being alone with one, a male one at that. They were unpredictable, possessive, powerful. They could control people with their eyes, predict movements. But above all that they produced an unnatural amount of chakra. Chakra was something everyone had, it was a hormone that worked in many different ways. It was similar to adrenalin. It made a person stronger, sharper, heightened their senses, among other things it was also an aphrodisiac. Chakra could be bought on the black market. And many of the rich buyers bought it specifically for that reason. She shuddered at the memory of how she felt when she freed the Uchiha.

He knew though, he knew what that liquid was doing to her and he got her away from it before she did something stupid.

"I need to be careful around him." She whispered to herself. "She knew all of these things but she didn't know how they were used. Perhaps the Uchiha didn't even produce chakra unless he needed or wanted to, or maybe he always produced it. She didn't know and that's what made him more dangerous than anything she'd ever encountered.

* * *

Sakura returned with an armful of wood. She prepared a portion of it in a pit then unshouldered her bag to look for matches. Pulling out a piece of fabric she mentally thanked Wraith. He had packed her clothes for the half naked Uchiha, something she had forgotten. Taking out the matches she threw one and it became a strong fire in an instant.

In the corner of her eye she saw the Uchiha visibly relax, inching closer to the heat in a way that confused her. He reacted like it was a lifeline. Surra returned, pulling on the ears of three rabbits. Sakura smiled as the she cat dropped the bundles of fur and curled in a ball in the Uchiha's lab. Her already full belly looked ready to pop. It took mere minutes for Sakura to ready the rodents and place then over the fire.

Then she stood and walked to the man. When she kneels next to him he reluctantly tore his face from the fire to her. She racked her brain for the words she needed. Her limited knowledge was beginning to hinder her.

"Umm." She grasped for the words. "Your….the metal." She hoped that was the right word. "I try to off." Great creators she hoped he understood.

He nodded and she gingerly traced the outline of the metal plate around his eyes, ignoring the tingling as her fingers touched his shin. "Damn." It wasn't just a metal plate attatched to his face. It was tech. If she did something wrong it could blind or even kill him. This was highly illegal tech. It was probably voice activated. She thought of how horrible her Sounian was. It was an ugly language but remembered something a Sounian slave commander had spat at her. What was it? Something about a god reborn in the flesh.

She cleared her throat. "Orochimaru shall rise in the flesh and control all." She spoke trying to say the words with the right pronunciation. As she spoke the language of his captures the Uchiha became rigid, she could feel his rage in the air. But the metal on his eyes clicked and the front illuminated into an outline of a grid. She needed to input the correct sequence. This wasn't too hard, she pressed the same sequence as the code they used to open the shields earlier that day.

She could see the barbs retract from the man's skin. Blood trickled from the 5 holes and the metal plate fell off his face. She blushed as his eyes met hers then run down her body.

He said something to her but she shook her head. "Can't understand." She said in her horrible Konohan. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. She gasped as his black eyes swirled red and she felt an odd sensation in her head, it took a minute before she pulled away. "What the hell are you-" She stopped a hand flew to her mouth. She'd used words she'd never spoken, a language she didn't know.

She quickly looked at him and his eyes were closed, a peaceful look washed over his features. "It's been a long time since I've heard my own language." He said.

And she understood.

"You…" She trailed off

"Yes. I taught you my language." He said opening his eyes.

So many questions filled her head but she didn't say a word. She even opened her mouth a few times, ready to say something but decided against it.

"Eat and rest." She said in the strange new tongue, pointing at the roasting rabbits. "You must be hungry." She stood up and went to set a better perimeter.

* * *

When she returned the man was sitting close to the fire, the amber light made his skin almost glow. "I still don't know your name." She almost whispered as she sat across the fire from him.

"Sasuke." He said not taking his gaze from the dancing flames.

"Sasuke." She tried the name on her lips, she liked it. "I'm Sakura." She blushed as she said her name in the Uchihan accent. It sounded good, it sounded Sexy, mysterious, even though it was anything but.

"Sakura." He said in a low rumbling voice and she shuddered. It sounded way better when he said it. "I couldn't understand you before, what's your plan for getting off this planet."

She sighed. "We going south while the others are going north. We had better chances while split. The southern parts of planets are usually the shady parts so we'll obviously need to keep your heritage quiet. It'd be best not to speak your language either but then we have to way of communicating. Anyway plan is to get down there and steal a ship. There's no way anyone down there will give us a ride so stealing is out only option."

He nodded. "You could teach me your language."

She shook her head. "Speaking in the U.R language down there is suicide. They'll rob and kill us."

"Then teach me you home language." He said.

She froze. Her home language? She hadn't spoken her home language since she was a child because…well because she didn't have a home anymore. "Teaching you a language would take too long. It'll take us about 2 weeks to get there and probably another week to find a suitable ship."

"It'll only take a few days to teach me a language."

She stared at him. "There are many other languages I can teach you that'll suffice then."

"I taught you my planet's language but you won't teach me yours." He said glaring at her.

"I don't have a home planet anymore so I have no right to speak it's language." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It doesn't matter right now anyway, got to sleep. We need our rest."


End file.
